Film versions

Abridgments

There are three abridged versions of the film, two of which are currently available:

• The 229 minute version — When the 'complete' film was shown in America, it still had to be trimmed slightly to secure an 'R' rating. Cuts were made to the two rape scenes, and some of the violence at the beginning. Noodles' childhood flashback during his meeting with Bailey in 1968 was also excised. This version is currently airing on Encore.^[14]
• A network television version of three hours (without commercials) was briefly available in the early-to-mid-1990s, which retained the film's non-chronological order but still left out several key scenes. This version has recently turned up in viewings of the film for the AMC TV channel.
• The infamous 139 minute American version was the version given wide release in America. Heavily edited by the Ladd Company against Leone's wishes, the film's story was rearranged in chronological order. Most of the major cuts involved the childhood sequences, making the 1933 sections the most prominent part of the film. Noodles' 1968 meeting with Deborah was excised, and the scene with "Secretary Bailey" ended with him shooting himself (albeit offscreen), rather than the famous garbage truck conclusion of the 229-minute version. This version flopped in the US and many American critics, who knew about Leone's original cut, attacked the short version viciously. Some critics compared shortening the film to shortening Richard Wagner's operas (some of which run over 5 hours), saying that works of art that are meant to be long should be given the respect they deserve. This shortened version, while briefly on VHS in the 1980s, is in little demand and almost impossible to find. However, Encore used to air this version during 2009.

In the Soviet Union, the film was theatrically shown in the late 1980s, along with other Hollywood blockbusters such as the two King Kong movies. The story was rearranged in chronological order and the movie was split in two parts, one containing all childhood scenes and the other for adulthood scenes. The parts were run as two separate movies.^[15] Except the rearrangement, no major deletions were made, and the film was rated as "16+" by the Goskino. This version has never made it on the Russian TV; the full PAL version was shown and is available on DVD.